Wednesday, 19 November 2008

This morning I received a glossy certificate telling me that I have passed the ReaLM course that caused me such grief during the early part of this year. I can’t work up any sense of achievement from this.

The Herts CVS group met this morning in Hertsmere. We were joined by HCC Cllr Richard Roberts, who has a keen interest in the voluntary sector, to discuss Hertfordshire’s Sustainable Community Strategy. He did a good job of explaining funding constraints and our discussions focused on the quality of relationships. Inevitably in only an hour, the discussion barely rose above the anecdotal but it was a good start to the dialogue.

Otherwise, the CVS group had very discussions on volunteering, fundraising, the Children’s Trust Partnership, Compact, social inclusion, health inequalities, LAA reward monies, and the Herts CVS Chairs’ network.

Hertsmere CVS is in the process of merging with the Hertsmere Community Partnership. The HCP operate a “Community Shop” in Borehamwood and it was here that we met. Too often, charity mergers are about reducing costs rather than long-term sustainability, but this merger is based on a sound analysis of local options and I hope it works well.

Back at Watford, I held discussions about WCVS’s own foray into community buildings: our engagement with the Holywell Centre. There is so much work to undertake and I am talking to people who I think can help us gather together sufficient information and views in order to take some decisions.

In the evening I perused the BNP members list that has mysteriously appeared on the internet and saw maybe 250 members from across Hertfordshire. The membership comprises a predictable mixture of the uniform-obsessed, delusional new age fantasists, thugs, the lost and the lonely. Some commentators have said you need a heart of stone not to laugh. It is difficult to predict the long-term impact this leak might have on far-right organisations: is it possible that the BNP’s middle-class membership will follow Max Moseley and stand resolute perhaps turning the BNP into a “respectable” party under the mantel of martyrdom? I suspect it is more likely that the middle-class membership will leave in droves – but what then for those left behind?

But there are also important questions for the rest of us: how should we react if we learn that our local teacher / school governor / scout master / priest / Green Party candidate is a member of a racist political organisation?